


Around the Corner

by howdoidothisagain



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - 19th Century, F/M, I Tried, I'm awful at summaries but no one gets to judge me, My research is awful thanks to actual studies so I apologize for inaccuracy, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, little women au, pls dont judge me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2019-11-04 12:34:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17898539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howdoidothisagain/pseuds/howdoidothisagain
Summary: Nanaba, a restless small town girl, takes up an internship in Sina as a teacher in hopes of trying something new, and to earn a sum she's sure will be enough for her purposes, and comes to meet Professor Mike Zacharias during her stay.It is safe to say she soon finds her world ripped apart at an agonizingly slow pace, and finds comfort and home in the simple words of the professor.





	1. Chapter 1

Nanaba surges through the crowd at the station to make her way to the street. She’s on her way to her first day at St. Rose’s Academy, where she’s supposed to be interning for 4 months as a teacher for a small class. 

Her parents had been worried that she’d never been somewhere so far out from their small hometown, and her mother had done all she could to convince her to not go, except it hadn’t worked. It hadn’t worked because nothing could, not when Nan knew exactly what to do with the pay she received.

Except now her stomach was doing flips, and it’s companion butterflies only flapped their wings to encourage it. Doubt encroached the entirety of her mind, and a long list of what if’s and why’s tumbled in all at once as she stood next to a ridiculous looking statue of Floch Forster, waiting for Ms. Dahlia, her mother's friend and owner of the academy who had graciously forwarded this opportunity to their house, to arrive to take her over to the hostels. 

 

_ “The point is, Floch Forster was either incredibly vile, or incredibly vicious, and was incredibly stupid either way.” Erwin stated profoundly from his bed as Nan slammed her history book down next to him. “That’s what you said about every figure we’ve had to study so far! And the book always says the  _ **_exact_ ** _ opposite.” _

_ He shrugged before leaning out towards her, spreading his fingers on either side of his face, “It’s all lies by the government, Nan.”  _

_ “So it won’t be on the test?” _

_ “No. Never, actually.” She stared down at the notes she’d been taking from his long, long lecture, believing he knew everything and would never misguide her, only to end up with 6 pages worth of notes she ultimately didn’t have any use of, and began to cry as he laughs while trying to reassure her. _

_ “Just leave out all the assuming.” _

_ She had ended up with the highest score in the test. _

 

She snorts as she remembers this now, standing next to a statue of the man on whom she’d hated with a passion ever since she started sessions with her older cousin. He’d been all in support of her taking the internship, all proud of his ‘baby cousin going off in to the great big world, for money!’.

She continues to reminisce about home. 

She thinks of her parents, both probably drinking tea by now. And her sister, Petra, who is on a trip to europe right now. It had originally been her trip to take, until her usually quiet self decided to give in at the worst time, losing her the opportunity. Few bitter thoughts cross her mind, but she shoves them in favour of happier thoughts, for it wasn’t like as though the two of them had never shared a single good time in their lives.

But mostly thinks of her cousin, Erwin, for he was the primary reason she had taken up the job, and was determined to do it well. With her pay from here, there would be just enough for her to take him on a vacation, that his poor body and soul was in desperate need off.

With each reason she’d come here cleared again, she pulls herself together, and taps her umbrella against the ground with a fair amount of force, making just enough sound to make passerbys turn heads. Embarrassed at her action, which just so happens to be an old habit, she tucks the umbrella under her shawl instead of holding low like she had been before.

It’s been 30 minutes since she arrived, and there’s an abnormally large crowd, at least to her, and she scans her surroundings for any sign of the old aunt and her omnibus, only to find nothing. So she straightens her skirt and fix her shawl.

It takes another 10 minutes for her to feel a sudden tap on her shoulder. She startles and swings around, only to find the old spinster standing there.

“Hello, sweety!”

Nanaba cringes internally but lunges forward to hug the woman anyway, wishing to leave the station already.

“Oh, you must be so tired honey.” Nan fights the urge to nod at that.

“I’m so sorry it took so long. But thats exactly what Sina takes in exchange for all the glory and fancy opportunities. Time!” She taps her watch, frowning. Nanaba thinks about how Erwin had been saying the exact same thing to her, hardly two days ago. Her six year old self nods,  _ “he’s a wizard.”  _ she smiles to herself.

They settle into the omnibus quickly enough, and Nanaba notices other women, whom she presumes to be teachers, sitting inside. She gets a seat next to her aunt, on accounts of being her guest.

Thus begins the journey to the school, and the whole way is full of all sorts of complaining and gossip, an act initiated by the very esteemed School mistress sitting next to her and carried on by the others.

It takes them around an hour to get to the building, and they all scurry inside to keep from the cold winter winds.


	2. Chapter 2

They get herded into the mess hall for dinner. Nanaba had wanted to go straight off to bed, but her Aunt refused to let her “perform the atrocious act.” What was so atrocious about sleeping on time, she could not understand, but she stayed behind anyway. 

While Ms. Dahlia walks off with another teacher, who had urgently said “The board of directors, Miss!” and immediately had the old dame on her feet, Nanaba settles down in a quiet corner with her food. 

She’s halfway through, absolutely thinking of all the ways she could simply just toss the plate into oblivion and race the winter winds to her bed, when she gets interrupted by a sudden hand on her back.

She jumps a little before turning over, to find a young woman smiling down apologetically at her. “Do you mind if I sit here? The other tables are,” she looks around, worry written in her features, “rather rowdy. I’d rather not partake in their wild acts while I’m like this.” She points to her stomach and Nanaba blinks at the obvious bump there. 

“Uh, sure, you can sit.” Nanaba moves aside and the woman settles in, and introduces herself as Rico Brzenska.

They eat together in silence till their both done, and then sit in an awkward silence. Nanaba notes Ricos fair hair, thick eyebrows, and wonders how poor her sight must be for her to need spectacles. 

Rico is the one who pulls the silence apart, and proves to be quiet headstrong. “So, why did you choose this internship?” She starts right off the bat.

“It payed.” Nanaba responds almost immediately, and is surprised at how materialistic her own response is. Rico laughs at that. “And why choose one that pays?”

“Because I wanted to take my brother on a vacation.” Another shot. It’s simple, straightforward. 

Rico raises her eyebrows. “Brother?”

Nan nods. Rico smiles. “Most people collect it for their sisters, first time I’ve seen someone willing to earn for a man.”

Nanaba resists the urge to snap back, having learnt the hard way that it attains one nothing good. “His health doesn’t fare all too well. I hope to get him out of town to somewhere he can breathe better.”

Rico looks on for a while before smiling. “Bless your soul, and his too. You must love him lots to go this far out.”

“Isn’t very hard to love him. Not when he does everything for me anyway.”

“Everything?”

“Yeah, everything, at least to me. I mean, he knows his stuff, and then he knows how to cook, and how to knit and crochet and stitch, among another array of things most men his age don’t think twice about.”  

Rico lets out a huff. “I wish I had a brother like that.” 

“You don’t have any?”

She waves a dismissive hand. “I do. Two of them, infact, and both useless, or at least nowadays. I almost pity their wives for the day this comes upon them.” Nan snorts because she knows what Miss Rico is talking about. She knows from tales her neighbours and friends have passed around, about husbands and men who may know how to open jars, but haven’t the slightest idea on where to go from there.

They continue to make small talk for some time, and Rico points to her husband, Ian Dietrich, sitting a table form them with other male members of the faculty. It is only then that Rico realises that she had introduced herself with the wrong second name, and from her frustration, Nan can tell it isn’t the first time.

Nanaba eventually takes directions to the female hostel from Rico and says her greetings to leave, every inch of her body complaining and longing for a bed, howsoever terrible it may be.

It takes her about 12 minutes to get there, and she is welcomed by several confusing hallways. As it turns out, being tired and new to place do not make a good formula for finding one’s way around and it seems to her as though room number 408 was non-existent in the mortal regime, that is, until she does come by it, right next to the door she had been about to knock on to ask for directions again.

She unlocks the door and stumbles in, too tired to make out much of the place as her eyes immediately dart to the bed. She almost trips over her own trunk, and clumsily undresses to get into her sleep gear. 

She sleeps like the dead that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look who managed to actually write another chapter!! (Look who wants to write more but has to rage through past papers first!!)  
> *cries*  
> Any how, thank you so SO much to both nameless guest and minxiebutt for leaving Kudos! I was in an awful place and opening my mail to see those kudos notifications in my mail really helped me!  
> Also to anyone reading this, feel free to comment and let me know what you think!  
> Love, Que.


	3. Chapter 3

When Nanaba comes to, she finds herself squinting at a rather bare wall, save for the odd little painting of a hand hanging from an old hook. Light is just barely beginning to peek through the window, and it’s obvious that she had forgotten to pull the curtains the previous night. She finds herself overcome with a sudden urge to not get up at all, to just lie in bed. It is rather soft, but there’s something odd and misplaced. It takes her to fully recall the fact that she isn’t home.

_ She isn’t home. _

She blinks at the sudden wave of relaxation that washes over her over the thought. She’s supposed to utterly heartbroken, and in some ways, she is, but it’s nowhere near what Petra had described in her letters. She guesses it’s because she has actual work to do. 

She gets up with some reluctance, quickly visits the women’s baths, changes into her work clothes and then, with breakfast about to be served in the mess in 15 minutes, sits down to figure out whether she wants to even go there or not. The hall had been pretty crowded the previous night, but it was presumably because a lot of teachers had just returned from vacations, or were just new like her and being welcomed.

But she decides she doesn’t want to go. Partially because she wants to set her things straight in the room, and partially because of the aforementioned homesickness. She ends up eating one of the cakes her mum had packed her, and almost finishes the whole thing on her own, stopping with just hardly a fifth left, unable to eat more.

She finishes of her unconventional breakfast with a large few gulps of water and stands up with an oddly renewed faith. She stands up, from the rug where she had retreated to in her sudden misery, fixes her hat, straightens her skirt and struts out of the room, closing the door behind herself a little too conclusively.

She walks on, keeping in mind the directions to her class that her Aunt had given her the previous night. She feels oddly confident, absolutely sure of how her day was to go, and can almost hear Erwin cheering at her from an armchair in her brain, a place specifically designated for all his helpful  advice and quips.

 

“ _ Look at you! You’re doing it! Go on, Nan, you can do it! _ ”

 

She greets nearly every person on her way to the academic building, which itself she finds to be oddly quiet. She supposes its because most of the teachers must still be on their way, and students aren’t supposed to be around until an hour later.

She runs up the stairs to the second floor, almost slipping twice, which opens up into a hallway taking her left. She walks by five rooms before arriving at room 22, the class where she would be teaching her 5th graders.

She walks in and quickly glances around the room. The brown desks are in set in crude lines upon the wooden floor, at least a few chairs near the back are broken, and there are pencil drawings, writings and scratches on the desks and on the walls next to them too. There’s only two windows facing the outside of the building to the left of the room.

She had found the lack of familiarity comforting back in the hostel, but the lack of it here is causing her heart to drop and she feels the urge to throw up or run and hide.

She tries to picture students in the room, all 18 girls sitting in their seats, gossiping and giggling.

_ Judging. _

She shakes her head in a failed attempt to somehow shake out the thoughts as well, and then sets to straightening up the lines. She then pulls out her register from her bag and begins to go over the names of the students again.

“...Stacy Miller, Delma Dok, Dina Dok... are they siblings?” She wonders aloud, before continuing her go through.”Annie Lionheart, Mina Carolina, Hitch Dreyse...” She goes on until the last girls name and then sighs, hoping she’d pronounced them all correct.

 

“Mr. Zacharias! You really don’t have to! I’m really strong you know, I can carry that on my on!”

Footsteps and a young girls high pitched voice pulls Nanaba out of her anxious mulling. For close to no reason, she immediately tenses as the voices get closer. 

“I understand that you are, of course you are! But you aren’t old enough to haul piles of wood up to floors yet, Christa.”

A much heavier voice replies.

“But I’ve done it before!”

The heavier set of feet stop close to the classroom.

“Goodness! Does that mean no one can ever help you either?”

“Yes!”

“Now, now, here, take this.”

“It’s a candy. I want the wood.”

Nanaba snorts at the child’s stubbornness, easing out again. She wonders if this is a daily occurrence.

“Dear me, child, we are but 4 steps away from the store, and if you complain anymore, I’ll haul you up and carry you as well.”

“No! And I’m strong like my grandma, and even stronger than Ymir! I can carry all of th..” Her sentence gets interrupted by her own childish laughter.

“Put me down, mister!”

“That I shall, once we reach the store.”

The odd pair crosses the front of her classrooms door, revealing themselves to be an incredibly tall man , taller than her brother, carrying his own bag, a stack of firewood, and a comically short girl on his shoulder. They laugh the entire way to the end of the hallway, where he drops the girl and her firewood off with another candy. 

He turns over to walk to his class and smiles at Nanaba, whose feet had magically moved her, against her will obviously, to the doorway to watch them. She smiles, suddenly tense again and  embarrassed at the fact that she’d basically stared at a complete stranger for about a grand total of 2 minutes in complete and eerie silence.

“Good Morning! Are you new here?” he asks, his face set in a welcoming smile.

“Yes, I am. And,” Her brain fuzzes what she’d meant to say, nervousness taking over before Erwin stomps in and clears away the fog while flailing his arms and screaming “ _ GOOD MORNING NAN! GOOD MORNING TO THE NICE GENTLEMAN!!! _ ” “And a good morning to you too.”

_ “NAME!! YOUR NAME!!” _

“I’m Nanaba Smith. I recently joined as a internee.”

His smile widens enough to show off the crinkles around his eyes, “And I’m Michael Zacharias. I teach History to this class over here, 10th graders. The first 2 lessons are mine today.”

“Oh! I teach History too, but to uh,” she looks over her shoulder into the class before turning back to him, “5th graders. At least here. And.. I have the first lesson in this class.” She wonders if her embarrassment at her lack of grace shows on her face, for if it does, he clearly isn’t bothered.

“Oh! How many lessons do you have today?”

“Only two today, one here and another a class later downstairs.”

“I see...” he stares down at his shoes for a while, before looking up and smiling at her again, “Have a nice day then, and I’m sure you’ll do great!”

“You too.” She manages to reply without any awkward pauses this time and silently congratulates herself for it.

She returns to her class, and soon enough, hears the sound of a much larger number of people walking onto the floor, and braces herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *one eternity later...*  
> Hi!!! It's me!!! With an exam a day later!!! And externals in a month!!! Finally updating!!!  
> *crying noises*  
> Anyway, this chapter would not have existed if it weren't for your comments/kudos. I'll let you know my heart nearly stilled when the notifications showed up!  
> Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this chapter too!


	4. Chapter 4

The class goes about as well as Nanaba had never hoped for, with the girls remaining mostly kind throughout. Except being a girl herself, and having lived with a wilder bunch, it doesn’t take her more than 15 minutes to know what was going on. Light whispers and pieces of paper are skillfully passed around, all of which she decides not to call out on her first day, knowing that she didn’t want them to see her as an opponent.

She walks out feeling just a bit exhausted, remembering once more exactly how tiresome she found the initial history of the eldian empire. She drinks out at least half of her water bottle on her way out of the building, not that it’s much, but definitely is the most she has drank while walking hardly 5 minutes.

Her next class is with second grade children, and goes relatively calmer, but she assumes it’s because the history being taught here is just mythology and the class is yet to cross the 10 year old boundary. She has always viewed that age to be one where some sort of mental barrier begins to fade, and children begin to realize that they are, infact, growing up, and can participate in quote on quote,  _ adult things. _

And the stupidest things too, she recalls. She’d been the wildest child on the street, and was probably the hardest on her mother, who was convinced she would never be able to settle properly before setting a house or two on fire and drowning the third. 

Petra had been her exact opposite, polite and usually docile. When things did not go her way, however, she would fall from her general grace to whine and glare before finally snapping and wrecking far greater havoc than what Nanaba could ever manage on her own.

She’s outside the building now, and opts to wait for lunch bell to go off by sitting on a bench in the school yard.

She snorts at her train of thought. They really had been incredibly different, and now here they were, sorting out adulthood in the most different of environments, possibly in the most different of ways too. 

“Miss?”

Nanaba turns in a rush to find Rico standing behind her.

“Hello” she answers a little too fast, embarrassed at having lost herself to her thoughts.

Rico gives her a little smile and settles down next to her.

“How was your first night around?” she asks as she pulls of her glasses.

“Well spent. I haven’t slept so still in years.”

“And your day?”

Nanaba nods as she answers, “It went well. The classes were good.”

Rico hums as she listens.

“I was a little nervous though, at the start.”

She laughs, “On the first day, everyone is! I almost cried myself to sleep the night after mine.”

“Cried?” Nanaba asks. There had been nothing to hint at any such anxiety from Rico. Despite having known her for barely a day or so, she had painted a rather strong image of her in her mind.

“Yes. I was too stubborn to show it in class, and went strong throughout the day, but some part of me was still scared, you know? That I’d be made fun off, or that the other teachers would gossip, which they did, just saying.” She waves her hand dismissively. Nanaba notes that she tends to move her hands around as she speaks.

“So I cried when i finally got to bed. It was ridiculous! I was being so  _ loud. _ ” She makes exasperated motions with her hands. “And naturally, the teachers gossiped about that too.” 

Nanaba snorts.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Rico’s smile widens. “But it's fine and forgivable in hindsight because i did get some valuables out of the experience, you know.”

Nanaba blinks. “Can I ask what they were?”

“Well, firstly, that gossip holds no worth, and is a stupid, fruitless habit we humans seem to have taken a liking to. Secondly, that crying is just fine, infact,” Rico fixes her shawl before looking back up at her, “we should all do it more often.”

“Right.” Nanaba stares down at her boots, considering the conversation done.

“And the third valuable,” Rico continues as Nanaba looks back up, “was my Ian.”

“What.”

Rico smiles at Nanaba’s wide eyed stare. “Yes.”

The school bell rings, indicating the start of the lunch break and children begin to pour out almost immediately.

“No, I mean, how?” 

“Oh come on, let’s head to the mess and continue there, shall we?”

Nanaba nods whilst fighting the urge to groan. She may know that romance is hardly real, but that doesn’t stop her from wanting to chase through the story.

She trails through the campus behind Rico until they finally settle into their seats at the mess hall. She she takes a bite of her sandwich before asking again.

“Right then, how?”

Rico smiles as she more or less swallows her sandwich bite, clearly excited to say this part. “He walked up to me after class on the third day or so and,” she drinks a little water while Nanaba stares at her, “and told me not to care about what people were saying because “It’s not like they know any better, and you’re doing great!” with an extreme emphasis on the ‘great’.” Her expression is awkward, like she’s trying desperately not to smile. 

Nanaba’s own face cracks into a smile. “And then you both started to show up around each other more often?” she asks before taking another bite. Romance was totally not her thing, until it was.

Rico looks at her, mildly flustered, “We didn’t just…! Okay, maybe I did decide he was worthy company, but he’s a good person!” 

“Ahan.” Nanaba smiles and does a ‘my lips are sealed’ motion and Rico throws her head back and laughs.

“By Maria! This isn’t supposed to so embarrassing to admit now but I can hardly help myself.” She straightens herself, a jovial look on her face. They continue to eat their food in relative silence until Rico speaks again. “So, did you meet anyone else today?”

Nanaba gets ready to shake her head before she remembers the kindly giant of a man from before. “Yes, Mike Zacharias. He had the class opposite to mine during the first lesson.”

“Ah, Zacharias. Quiet man.”

“OR NOT!” They both jump and Rico is halfway through flipping her assailant onto the table, before they pull back. They, mostly, because Nanaba could not quite pinpoint anything defining about the person in front of her. Their long hair is tied in a struggling ponytail, and their face appears feminine in complete contrast to their clothes, which consists of a coat, baggy trousers, and a button down.

“Hanji! Can you not…! I’m in a bit of a fragile position right now and I don’t--”

Hanji throws their hands up. “I’m sorry woman! I waved from across the hall but you didn’t notice and-” they happen to notice the other person at the table, who has more or shrunken back at their abrupt entrance. They observe her for a minute, before their face cracks into a wide, toothy smile.

“Hanji Zoe!” They lean forward on the table, holding their hand out. Nanaba forces her conscience to refocus and takes it, “Nanaba Smith.” They shake her hand vigorously and then proceed to more or less slam down on the bench next to their friend.

“Mind if I tell you something?”

Nanaba hasn’t opened her mouth yet when Rico butts in, rubbing her forehead, even if her ire has mostly gone away “Where’s Moblit?”

“He’s got a class right now.” They fix the position of their glasses, and then continue:”Either way, have you ever pet a hedgehog?”

“A what now?” Rico now looks ready to punch them.

Nanaba decides to forego mentioning that the activity isn’t as much of an improbable thing to the countryside and instead nods along as Hanji essentially vomits out everything of their own experience, and then later continue on others from their travels during the vacations.

Their energy is commendable, and they clearly happen to be hyper fixated on eyeless fish.

“They are just, so, so, so amazing! And I haven’t even seen them yet!”

“You haven’t?” Nanaba asks.

They shake their head ruefully. “I hope to during the next break. Though it’ll take some convincing to get Moblit along, considering those caves are in the north, and the next vacation is in winter. He doesn’t like the cold much.”

“Right, so we can stop this discussion now?” Rico says it more decisively than as a question. Hanji grins apologetically at her.

“Yeah.”

They elbow Rico’s shoulder before uttering a sheepish apology, even if it’s clear they hold no shame in their interests. Nanaba imagines they’d make good friends with Erwin, considering he has rather talented patience and could probably listen to people go off for hours without a hitch, except she’s sure Hanji would overwhelm even him. It’s hardly been an hour and she’s already feeling tired.

The three of them separate as the bell for the 7 class goes off, and as she exits the hall back into the yard, Nanaba decides her day has ended.

She retreats to her room with the thoughts of reading in mind, but ends up setting up the room instead. The activity consists mainly of her putting away her clothes, however. She stacks up 8 of her less favourite books on the coffee table, considering that there were no shelves, and the other two on the study alongside her stationary and loose sheets which are sure to get chucked into the drawers sooner or later.

It all ends a little too quickly, with her hands still used to the massive clutters at home, but she isn’t bothered much.

She sets her chair by the window, realizing she wouldn’t have a healthy amount of light anywhere else, and settles down to read. And she does, and goes over her favourite scenes, having read the little book before.

Later that evening, Nanaba goes over her syllabus and notes again, and some part of her muses that it she’s perhaps simply still afraid to fail somehow. She frowns. This was supposed to be a helpful excursion out of her little hometown. There wasn’t anything too difficult about the course, and it was certainly nothing she hadn’t taught before. She’d made friends too, and it was just her first day. 

It had to be the change in environment, she figures. Erwin had said something about that, when he’d come back from college, something about “the city blues”. She’d been so sure she could take on it, tired of her home, and now her head hurts she wants a reverse option. 

She looks up at her table side clock to find that dinner time was in half an hour and frowns, doubting whether she wants to go or not, and ends up deciding to step up to it. Hopefully Rico, or even Hanji will be there, and she’d hopefully bring the day to good end. 

With these thoughts in mind, she stands up, settles her clothes, and heads for the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAAAYYY. Sorry for the incredibly late chapter! And I hope to deliver the next one sooner!  
> I still have 2 exams left, and I like neither (a recipe for disaster, really, but let me ignore that).  
> Regardless, thank you for all your support (alot! extra alot! I'm very grateful!).   
> Seeing your Kudos and comments really makes my day!  
> 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is why you shouldn't go to public places while tired and with a bad mood, friends.  
> Absolutely not based on irl happenings (I didn't have a mike. T T)

It takes her less than 4 minutes in the mess to realize that this had been a mistake. Hanji is nowhere in sight, and Ian explains that his wife had been too tired to get here as he carries a tray of food out of the hall. 

Nanaba quickly selects her food and slumps onto a table much farther away from where the other ladies are seated. She’d stepped away from the table she’d originally intended to sit at, after cringing terribly at the first exclamation she heard as she’d come close enough. 

_ “Hanji? She’s such a freak, how did poor Mob-” _

Nanaba may have talked to Hanji for barely an hour, but while she couldn’t afford to get into a brawl on her first day, she certainly wasn’t going to sit down and listen to prejudiced opinions about a person she was convinced was kinder than most she’d met in her life. And what was that about ‘poor Moblit’? He’d seemed more than overjoyed earlier as he’d met Hanji outside the Mess, pulling them into a shy hug before inquiring after their day. 

She eats her food at an awkward pace, eating fast, remembering not to rush, and forgetting again. She imagines the ladies at the table talking about her now, calling her a freak. She figures she wasn’t all that far off when she catches one of them pointing back at her.

She keeps on having to remind herself to keep not only to eat normally, but to keep her temper in check, especially as two of the women get up from their table to leave, and approach her first.

“Hey darling! I’m Sarah, and this is Katherine.” One of them starts off, all smiley and all too pleasant. She has enough makeup on for Nan to figure that she probably has to go out to buy more every 3 months. Miserably excessive and un-economic.

“Hi. I’m Nanaba.” She hopes she appears accepting.

“Yeah, we heard,” Kath side eyes her friend who returns the gesture, looking like she’s barely keeping from snickering, even if Nanaba is sure that’s just her mind, “You’re new around here aren’t you, to the city?” It takes Nanaba a minute to reply, considering she’d just recognized Kath to be the same person who’d call Hanji a freak.

She ends up simply nodding, still smiling, even if every single muscle in her face wants to pull down and glare. 

“Well, come around on the weekend, we’d love to show you around!”

She imagines Erwin shaking his head in disapproval in his chair.

She nods again, and they both seem happy enough. They make some small talk, get her to wave at the rest of their table before leaving her to herself.

She sighs, and turns back to her food, only to frown at the fact that the mashed potatoes have gone cold.

She assaults them anyway, ire rising up. She ends up finishing in record time, barely paying any mind to the people around her, not with her head spinning with angry thoughts of home and work and people, Erwin knitting steadily as her thoughts pile up.

She heads to the counter to leave her plates, and as she puts them away, ends up overhearing two men talking about the last thing she’d needed at the moment.

“Have you seen the new intern?”

“Oh, Smith? Yeah. She’s nice, but she should grow her hair out, don’t you-” 

Her anger smashes through the roof, and she’s sure her face is red. When the two of them have the audacity to continue to talk about her, only this time judging her clothes, she turns swiftly, ruins the effect by stomping her foot, even if the two have clearly not noticed her yet.

That’s not an issue though. They will.

She’s punched down enough blokes to be sure of that.

She starts to move towards their table only to get blocked out by someone. 

Someone who gleefully acknowledges her with a “Ms. Smith!”

She looks up, anger only mildly subdued. “Hello.” She almost flinches at how cold that had been, and almost rushes to correct. “I was just leaving and- You eat dinner late?” It’s true, as most people are leaving already, and Zacharius is only just headed towards his table with a very, very generously filled plate, she notes.

He looks mildly sheepish as he replies, “Yes, a little late. I teach Christa and Ymir in the evening, after school.” He sniffs. “Good girls, both of them.”

Nanaba nods, a smile only just beginning to spread on her face before she hears the two “gentlemen” from earlier start to laugh as they begin to get up. Mike turns to look too. Rage boils up again, but she thinks more rationally this time. It’s best to move on to her room, instead of getting fired on the first day by starting a fight.

“I think I should hurry,” Mike turns back to her, smile on his face, crinkling his eyes again, “Mr. Samuel is leaving. I have to take some of his classes tomorrow and should probably go and ask him about his course.” Nanaba nods. “Alright.”

Mike sets to move before stopping again. “Ms. Smith?”

“Yes?”

“Did you have dessert?”

“I suppose,” She looks at the food tables, mildly surprised at how lost she’d been in thought again, and Erwin snorts somewhere behind her, “I suppose not.”

He smiles again, “You should, we have pudding tonight, it’s good.”

“Uh, yeah. Okay.” She starts to walk off only to notice Erwin feigning dramatic weeping in his armchair, and adds a hasty, “Thank you.”  _ for averting a disaster that didn’t need to happen on my first day.  _

He smiles again, brighter this time, as though he’s heard a moderated version of her thoughts, too. “Your welcome!”

It doesn’t take long for her to reach the serving table, and an even shorter time to get herself an unreasonably small slice of the pudding. She doesn’t want to make Mike feel bad by not eating anything at all, but at the same time, she wants to get back to her bed.

She ends up sitting at a different table from before, not wanting to disturb the maids busy cleaning up. It’s closer to the table where Mike is working out his schedule with Mr. Samuel, who happens to be one of the men from earlier. While that doesn’t help her faltering mood, the pudding certainly does, being, as Mike had simply described it, good.

She ends up indulging in another, larger slice, because she’s sensible enough to not let the opportunity to savour good food slip away. Here’s another detail that’s going into her letter home, which Nanaba just remembered to be a thing she had to do.

However, Mr. Samuel lets her be at peace for only so long, before he resumes his earlier discussion, first with Rico, criticizing her unfairly for working while pregnant, and then, shifts his focus onto “Rico’s new friend”, making Nanaba want to rip his hair out and then chuck him off a cliff. 

“-should seriously grow her hair out. And her boots were too ma-”

Nanaba finds her spoon beginning to twist within her hands and catches herself before she actually ruins it, biting the inside of her cheek to hold back tears. She can’t ruin everything on her first day. 

_ And what would Mr. Zacharius think? Would he be like them too? _

_ Why do I care? _

 

_ “Isn’t it obvious?”  _

She blinks.  _ What? _

_ “It’s because he respected you.” _

Her mind pans in on Erwin. He holds his needles down with half a stitch done and looks up at her, expression deadpan. Like he’s stating a fact. 

Respect.

Erwin smiles at her, finishes his stitch, and then says, “ _ I hope he lives up to your expectations. I do. _ ”

She tries to smile back at him, only to taste copper. This drags her back to the world, and she’s grateful she’d finished her pudding earlier, as the bloods taste fills her mouth. She gets up to leave, her want to sleep having only increased ten fold. Erwin follows her, giving her a gentle push.

_ “Go rest.” _

She starts, each step seemingly harder as her soul slips further and further down, her mind reeling.

And then she hears Mike speaking.

“-hardly! She looks brilliant in her own way, and it is not our place to even talk about any lady in such an unfai-.”

She blinks, her steps quickening, and she watches Erwin laughing as he fades from her sight. It takes her a minute to realize she’s smiling herself. She doesn’t stop, her heart suddenly in a better place, her steps lighter.

She goes back to her room and undresses quickly, ready to take the nights better tidings with her into sleep.

It’s been but a day at work, but Nanaba feels she knows the people she can trust.

She knows she can trust Rico Dietrich, and Hanji Zoe, as eccentric as they may seem.

Now she knows she can trust Mike Zacharius, too. And she’s happier with that knowledge, even if she’s yet to know that its bound to only get better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M BACK. AFTER EXAMS. WHICH WENT PAINFULLY SLOW AND GENERALLY BAD, IF ANYONE CARES.  
> Thank you to each and everyone one of you who comments, contemplates commenting, leaves Kudos, and forgets to do both because they're busy but enjoyed it.  
> Because all of that makes me disgustingly soft and teary eyed.  
> This chapter was particularly hard to write, but I'm glad I got something out. Hopefully it wont cause problems down the line. (Note: hopefully)


	6. Chapter 6

Nanaba spends the next week falling into a routine of-sorts. Sleep takes up most of her time not teaching, going through notebooks, or looking at the syllabus for the umpteenth time. 

She finds her own classes less and less intimidating, the girls slowly starting to grow onto her. Delma and Dina turn out to be siblings, as she’d guessed, the former secretly being her favorite student. 

She isn’t exactly quiet or overly studious, but she does her best, constantly trying to put forward her best in every part of life. Nan knew from experience that this happened to be an impossible feat, and that every person, even the best of them, failed somewhere. 

She had a handful more of chance encounters with Mr. Zacharius, finding that she does indeed enjoy his company, and finds that he speaks just fine, unlike Zoe had exclaimed earlier, whom he probably sounded quiet to because their own rambles could outdo and overpower almost anything.

Only one thing bothers her, and it is the lack of mentions from Erwin in the reply to her letter home. She’d sent a seperate for him, only to receive no answers, and no notes. It felt odd, especially considering the fact that he didn’t really have much to do otherwise, or anywhere to be. He’d been the most excited at the prospective and eventual reality of her going to the city for work, even if it was for a brief period. 

Some small amount of worry creeped onto her, but she it brushed aside. He had probably gotten busy with something; books, or a new craft. She shortly considering writing to her mother about it, only to quickly dismiss the idea, knowing her mother wouldn’t react well to it. 

She goes through her usual routine at the institute until the weekend rolls by. She finds herself suddenly blank, awkwardly settling on her chair, half dressed, trying to figure out what she wants to spend her weekend doing. She doesn’t want to claw it all up going through the syllabus, and all the publishing and news houses are bound to be closed.

She had intended earlier to go there to see if she could earn a little more money if she could get her stories published.

She finds herself fruitlessly trying to figure out her activities for the day on her chair next to the window, and is halfway to the point where she might as well as pull at her hair when there is a knock on the door.

She answers it quick enough, her mind desperate for something to happen, to find Hanji standing there, dressed even odder than they had ever been before, with a ridiculous looking trench coat too many sizes larger than necessary, with bright blue boots peeking through the bottom. The hat on their head is simply too large, too bright upon the dark muddy coat,, and Nanaba is convinced she’s seen the exact same specimen in Erwins stash somewhere.

“Yes?” She asks, a little dumbfounded by her visitors appearance.

Hanjis smile grows a bit more. “Hi! I was just, wondering if you would like to visit High Tree with us?”

Nanaba continues to stare, her activity deprived brain unable to quite figure out what to say. “High Tree?”

“It’s a park, and its really, really amazing and has almost 50 species of bird there! I’ve only seen 30 yet but,” Hanji starts excitedly before hastily adding, “If you’re free, of course. I know Kath and the rest offered to take you out in the city too , but I was just wondering if you’d like to...”

“I’ll come!” Nanaba bursts out a little too quick, a little too loud. Her face goes a little red as Hanjis smile turns almost manic. “Come on then! Me and Moblit will be waiting at the gate.”

“I’ll be out in 20 minutes.” Nanaba promises, and with a final head nod exchange, they both head their respective ways.

Nanaba quickly goes through her wardrobe before deciding that her current clothes, a green cotton dress, are probably the best for the job. She changes her slippers for more practical boots and picks out a brown bonnet to don on her head. She runs out with her handbag, which happens to be mostly empty, save for a bottle of water, a notebook and a pencil or two. She reaches the gate and finds Hanji standing there next to a carriage, this time without the trench coat and Nanaba almost stares in awe. 

They’re dressed in brown pants, held up by suspenders, with white cuffed shirt. They look good. Nanaba quickly shakes their hand and climbs into the carriage to find Moblit already seated there, two bags on his lap. He gives her a meek smile.

“Hello, I’m Moblit Berner.” 

“Nanaba Smith.” 

Hanji climbs in almost immediately after, and they head off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! So if anyones still here!!!!HERES THE NEW!!!!! INCREDIBLY SHORT!!!!!SUPER DLELAYED!!!!!!POORLY WRITTEN!!!!!!CHAPTER!!!!!!  
> Every comment and kudos on this fic so far has helped by giving me that little dopamine induced heart attack.  
> So thank you!


	7. Chapter 7

It takes them about an hour to arrive at high tree, which means an hour of sitting in relatively cramped with Hanji constantly talking, starting from details of all the birds they’ve seen so far, and then continuing on about other things. Moblit only says a handful of words, and otherwise smiles at Hanji like they’re the worthiest person in the world. 

Nanaba simply watches the two of them, nods only half interested as Hanji pulls out glass bottles and equipment from the bags Moblit had been holding while he panics, trying to hold the bags straight as they yanked out the items one by one.

“...and this is…!” They start.

“Hanji! You almost caused this to drop!” Moblit blurts out, holding a glass that had been hurtling down to the floor of the carriage a moment ago.

They immediately give him an apologetic look, “Oh god! I’m so sorry, uh, why do we even have that? It’s a lense, isn’t it?”

Moblit sighs. “You were the one who claimed this was ‘terribly important’ while we packed last night!”

Hanjis eyes light up, “Oh! Yeah! Miss Nanaba, look at this! Its originally supposed to be a part of a full observatory set, but I managed to bribe the shopkeeper with some items of his interest and bought only this!” they turn the glass around, “Its perfect for observing tinier creatures, don't you think?”

Nanaba nods again, and accepts the little framed glass when Hanji hands it over. “Indeed.” She turns it in her hands. “Quite a handy size, too..” She adds as she slips it in before pulling it out. The glass is incredibly adorable, its frame a light blue with little intricacies drawn onto them. It’s perhaps the only thing to catch her interest.

Hanji starts to explain how they use the glass, adds that it can be used for other purposes, and proceeds to gush about their new net.

When they arrive at High tree, Moblit has only barely managed to place everything back in order. Hanji hops out of the carriage at first chance, Nanaba jumping out after, somewhat inspired by their courage to not care even as she notes the driver glance amusedly at them as they both run out. The entrance to the land is plain enough, and they get through easily once Hanji is done chatting up the guard who replies with equal fervour, apparently fairly used to them by now.

They almost immediately enter the forest, Hanji hellbent on ‘stretching’ as they go.The three of them make their way along a quiet path, and arrive at a clearing soon enough. The area is still surprisingly well shaded, and Hanji almost immediately proceeds to fwip down onto the grass next to a tree. 

“Favourite spot!” They announce when they notice her staring in bewilderment. “Also less crowded and even less noisy!” They add after a split second while vaguely pointing at the entire clearing. Nanaba nods and joins them, while Moblit hurries to unpack some of the food they’ve brought along, alongside canteens of water. 

“It’s quite hot for an Autumn day.” She adds after Hanji is done gulping down over half their share. 

They nod wildly, their pony boobing alongside them in a way that makes Nanaba smile. “It really is! Especially this far into the season,” they lean back against the tree while dramatically fanning themselves, causing the two of them to burst into a fit of giggles. Nanaba decides there and then that her and Hanji would have been terribly good friends if they’d met as children, and almost wishes they had. 

They all settle into a quiet setting for sometime, Moblit taking off his hat and coat and stuffing it into a bag before taking Hanjis too. He then sits next to Hanji on the ground, albeit keeping a respectable distance, while they lie on their side, their glasses set aside. Nanaba instead finds herself busied with thoughts and very curious hare in the near distance,

_ What would it have hurt to have some fiery spirit by my side that wasn’t dying? _

She internally chastises herself for the thought, not having wanted to think of her cousin way, even if it isn’t the first time it has happened. She halfway blames the peace of her surroundings for the sudden intrusion, blames the fact that she hadn’t been busy that very moment to avoid it. She wonders if thats how her parents thought of him too, knows that they do, and gets interrupted by Hanji clearing her throat. 

The hare jumps away, and Nanaba looks at first to her left, where Hanji had originally been, and then upward at where they are now.

Somewhere in between the time that she had been spiralling down a hell hole of thoughts, Hanji had stood up, dusted their bottom, and collected their bag from the ground, now looking at her expectantly.

“Uhh...” Nanaba starts, unsure of what has just happened. Moblit answers before Hanji has the chance to. “I’ll be staying here with the rest of the equipment. You and Hanji are supposed to go together. To collect chamomile.” he says, before hastily adding “seeds and full plant.” as both his companions for the journey turn to stare at him. He shrugs and Hanji smiles, “Alright, you can stay here, you summer allergic dumbo.” Moblit immediately flushes while Hanji laughs, helping Nanaba up. 

The two of them make their way across the field, and enter the forest again. They walk for about 15 minutes, Hanji seemingly having memorized every pathway. They soon arrive at another clearing, albeit much smaller than the first, and also essentially brimming with chamomile. Hanji “wahoo’s!” before setting to work.

“Are we even allowed to pick these?” Nanaba asks, feeling hesitant as she feels the stem of the flower.

Hanji smiles. “Yeah, so long as there is no permanent or massive damage, its fine. I mean, picking a few flowers is fine, but plucking out the whole field? Big no to that.” 

Nanaba nods and the two set to work. It barely takes them ten minutes to finish up, but Hanji plops down in a trees shade anyway. 

“5 minute rest.” They explain with a sheepish smile when they catch the other staring at them. Nanab snorts before joining them. She thinks its going to be another 5 or 8 minutes of quiet before they set off back, until Hanji asks a question.

“What were you so worried about back there?”

“Where?”

“At our first stop.”

Nanaba flinches as Hanji’s words make her realize she’d how occupied she’d been with her thoughts then.

“I was just looking at a hare.”

“Not the most spectacular sight for someone from a small Rose town.” Hanji answers, their voice and expression painfully straightforward.

Nanaba’s anger flares again, but she stomps it down. “I was just thinking about home.”

“And that was making you upset?”

Nanaba finds herself surprised by the statement. She really was too obvious, or maybe Hanji was at good as Erwin when it came to reading people. 

“It’s not important.” She tries to brush it off, and gets up to get set before they head back. Hanji simply looks at her for a while, before following suite.

“Nothings important, you know. But it doesn’t hurt to talk about it. I won't judge you.” they say once they’ve walked some.

“How do you even know somethings going on?” Nanaba looks straight at Hanji, exasperated at their stubbornness, and they turn around to face her. 

They think a little before responding, “You’ve always got this face when you talk about home, especially since last Wednesday.”

Nanaba feels her face burn. She was that obvious, and had clearly lost this argument non argument. She sighs before giving Hanji what they seem to be hunting, almost.

“Just some stuff about my cousin, I’m worried about him.”  _ Not too much, not too little. _

“Why?”  _ Darn it. _

“He hasn’t really been that well lately,” _ never truly fit into our household,  _ ” I guess. He didn’t respond to my letter so I’m worried something might have happened.”  _ I’m worried he’s finally taken the brunt of the of what is never said. _

She must’ve made a particularly ugly face as she said that, because Hanji merely hums, and they continue down their journey. Nanaba almost starts to mourn how miserable the day that hasn’t ended yet had been. 

Except it doesn’t turn out to be that at all, and instead has a rather joyful day. They see numerous different birds as the day passes, including two that Hanji hadn’t seen before. “These aren’t in the manual!” Hanji exclaims quietly as they all hide behind a rock two look at a pair of speckled birds. They find more than a few insects Hanji had been interested in, mostly thanks to Nanaba’s well-trained eye in the matter. She’s caught plenty of insects in the fields outside there town as a kid to have plenty of experience, even if it was mostly to bother Petra. Hanji’s glass also comes in handy, and Nanaba nearly wishes she didn’t have to part with it.

They end their day a little before 5 with the lunch Moblit had packed for them, wanting to get back to the dorms before it gets too dark.

Nanaba ends up parting with them at the gates, because as it turns out, Hanji and Moblit live in an apartment together outside campus. “Only married couples are given rooms here.” Moblit explains kindly, after she gives them a quizzical look when they dont leave with her.

“And you’re not?” The fact has honestly surprised her, and Hanji laughs. Holding out their right hand, they point at a ring. “This winter. We’ll invite you.”

They leave after a laugh and a wave, leaving Nanaba to go back to the hostels by herself.

As she walks, she goes over the day, which results in the day being just another day, not particularly miserable, nor especially kind. She’s fine with that, though.

She feels like it was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!  
> This is perhaps the quickest i've ever finished a chapter. Can't say much about the next one, though! I think I've come to terms with not knowing when I'm going to update.  
> Regardless, this wouldn't have happened without your kind kudos and kinder messages that somehow pushed me out of writers block, even if for a while, it was great to finish this before i went back to mulling about.  
> Thank you!


	8. Chapter 8

The next day, however, is particularly miserable. All her thinking yesterday crashes in, bringing with it a kind of fogginess she cant fight off. She dresses sloppily, leaves with quick but offhand steps.

Her worry over her cousins plausible plight has only increased tenfold, or maybe more considering that she cannot even ask after him until after another 3 weeks. She doesn’t want to write a letter asking of him home, knowing it would upset her parents, maybe even result in arguments with either her, Erwin, or each other that she doesn’t want to bear again. Letters often come off as cold, and simple sentences when written instead of said out sound accusatory, and this is something she’s always suffered the consequences of. 

She only has one class that day, the other two cancelled due to it being a half day, and even if she doesn’t particularly feel up to it, she decides to go to the publishing houses that day. She mindlessly pulls out her clothes, knowing that she has only one set of genuinely formal clothes, a white dress shirt, a long dark gray skirt, and a black coat to go over and a black hat. She irons the clothes as straight as she possibly could at her floors common iron table. 

The last time she had worn the clothes was when her aunt had taken her and Erwin along to a social. She’d found herself wanting to run out eight minutes in, unable to bear how stiff the environment was. Her cousin seemed fine though, in fact, he seemed more at home arguing with the mayor's brother over budget handling than he did out on a cricket field.

She could still recall his settled smile as he slammed down the other man's every attempt at why the new taxes shouldn’t have been imposed, right down until he left him fuming. She’d never understood how he could be so calm and even sincere while debating against complete morons despite how quick they ran out of true arguments and started spewing insults and self centered complaints.

_ “The secret is in only ever listening to half their sentences. You know, the half that makes sense. And also knowing that the minute they start whining senselessly is the minute you’ve won and the debate is done.” _

_ “But they don't think that. They just keep on going!” She grumbles, just having been pulled aside after nearly slamming a plate in Marianne Torche’s head because of a heated quarrel. _

_ “That’s true. That's also why you just bait them into going on and on until they, as a good friend of mine would say, lose their shit. When they do that, they leave on their own, you don't have to bother with strong arming them out of the way.” _

_ “It’s not that easy! It’s my fault I’m neither a fox nor snake like you.” she whines, and his face immediately lights up, making her regret her words before he even opens his mouth. “So does that make you an ape? Or an elephant?” She glares at him and he cracks up laughing before quickly gathering himself as their aunt shoots them both a look of warning. _

She sighs as she walks back to her room. She dresses quickly upon noticing the time, 11:30, not wanting to spend the entire day at the publishing square. 

It takes her round about an hour to get there with Sina’s traffic. There’d been plenty of smaller papers offering space, and at least two from a major publisher. She didn’t have much hope of getting the space for a story of all things with Berg Newspaper, especially not with their overarching historical focus on journalism and reporting. They’d only ever published three series in their paper, two incredibly short ones by well known authors, and one anonymous epic that ended up being forcibly removed from the paper due to its political themes by the government at the time, which was only 6 years back. 

The same government was in charge right now, as it had been for at least the past few decades with only regular shifting between the same faces, and Nanaba found herself cursing them and their legislations at least thrice a week. They had recently tried to take away the right to vote to vote from women after Lady Frieda won her first election in her home city, Sina, by a landslide against the senator who had been up their for about a decade. Nanaba snorts, knowing that wouldn’t have fixed anything. The number of women qualified to vote was still two to each five men eligible. If those whiny straw brains had produced a single good development in the past 5 decades or so, they’d still have their vote banks, but they didn’t, and now they reaped what they sowed.

She visits the smaller offices first, to no awail, considering they were all looking for something shorter, more spiced up, though Nanaba could not figure out for the life of her how anything could be more spicier than a murder drama with romantic subtexts. She was convinced that there was no better mix. How else would one know they were truly in love unless they proved their willingness to die for eachother at least once? Or at least that's how the joke went. Erwin was convinced she found it funny because she’d read too much Shakespeare and had done one too many rereads of Frankenstein.

It’s nearing 3 PM when she arrives at Berg’s offices. The large building was bustling with activity, probably because of the upcoming elections, and the floods down south. There’s a bust of Peaure Halsman in a quiet corner, the young man who had somehow managed to define what the spirit of journalism was meant to be within the walled country, and brought Berg papers their high praise which had somehow managed to stick through the century..

 The receptionist tiredly directed her to the second floor’s office 35.

She heads up the stairs only to startle heavily when she finds Erwin next to her, “ _ These offices were not this big last I was here. _ ” he comments.

_ “Last? Was that 4 years ago or are you talking about your imaginary visit a century ago?”  _ she thinks, and he smiles, a little too wide. 

“ _ This building was completed a year ago. _ ” his eyes twinkle, _ “Now you guess.” _

She rolls her eyes and continues her trek. Upon reaching her destination, she ends up having to wait a while before the office is free again and she heads in. The man inside is starting up what looks like at least his 8th cigarette that day, if the butts on the ashtray were anything to go by.

It doesn’t take them long to exchange greetings, after which he jumps straight to the point. “What’ve you got, then?”

Nanaba thinks that she is just about fine with his preferences. “A story in four parts.” She pulls out her folder, and bites the inside of her cheek when she realises that her hand is trembling. The man seems to pay it no mind, perhaps because he’s grown to not care.

Or maybe he’s grown to care enough that he chooses to ignore it.

_ “The second option.” _ Erwin says unhelpfully. Nanaba cannot look the man in slightly messy business wear and not see beelzebub in his face as he reads the title, before turning to the first page. “What's it about?”

“It’s a murder mystery with fantastical tones.” she replies, cringing at her description.

He nods, flips the next ten pages over, and then another few, before putting it down and looking up at her. “And why should I select this instead of...” he points vaguely at a stash of files on a table just across from his table, “any of that?”

Nanaba’s mind blanks for a minute. As her brain starts working again, she takes in a deep breath before saying, “Because it’s more relevant. And has won an award” She feels stupid, as she’s never even laid eyes on any of the other works or their succeses.

He seems amused with her reply though.

“Alright then. I’ll consider your more relevant work, Miss.” It's another pair of exchanged greetings and Nanaba finds herself out of his office. As she walks out, she thinks of the experience as almost surreal, albeit still rude. Judging from the clock down in the lobby, she’s been in for only about ten minutes. Its 3:30 PM now, and Nanaba decides she has enough time to walk around the marketplace. Rico has described the place to her a handful of times, and  so has Hanji whilst trying to somehow explain the directions to their favourite hardware store.

She walks around awkwardly, stopping mostly at food stalls as she roams the area. 

She ends up buying yarn and and 3 pairs of needles to go along as she thinks back to how empty her routine was now, outside of work and clean up. Crocheting had never really interested her much, and she’d always marvelled at how Erwin could commit to a project long enough to finish it, or how Petra still had the nerve to continue learning despite never truly understanding much of crochet or knitting, even 8 years on.

Regardless, it took up time and headspace and Nanaba convinced herself that was enough of a reason to suffer the walk back to the dorms with 3 bags of yarn and a third of completely unnecessary buttons and string.

And as she settles all of her merchandise next to her chair by the window, she decides on dinner in her room. She’s eaten enough that day whilst roaming the market, and is convinced that bread and jam will do just fine for her. She settles on her desk with an obnoxious number of sandwiches by her side as she busies herself with figuring out a scarf pattern for the oncoming winter. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me a while to realize the fact that if i did in fact continue this chapter anymore, it would have gone on for a very, very long time, and super long chapters in my own works apparently freak me out. XD.  
> Either way, thank you for all your support for the last chapter and this work in general. It still makes me grin like an idiot every time I come across an email about a kudos or comment while going about my everyday work and studies!  
> (and apparently I exist on tumble right now at : https://unchecked-unneeded.tumblr.com/ so you can come say hi there too!)


	9. Chapter 9

Her pattern ends up expectedly simple, but she’s been a little fancy this time, adding shell stitches. Anything else she knew was going to take too much counting and Nanaba wasn’t quite up to that last night. As it is, this pattern was going to take her 3 days at most, so there was plenty of time to figure out something else. She starts her project in her room, only to get bored within the first half an hour. 

She walks around her room in frustration, before figuring she might as well take her project to the common room on the floor below. She’s been there a few times, but it was mostly just to get some reading done before setting off to her class. She somehow manages to fill herself a jug of water before going to the room, not exactly wanting to have to walk to the kitchen with her eyes half closed. There were always glasses placed dangerously close to the counters edge.

The room itself was about the same size as maybe two bedrooms put together, with an obnoxiously large amount and variety of cushions thrown about, both on and around the actual 8 person seating arrangement. Hanji had explained that most of the cushions belonged to staff, and added  _ “You should take a look in here before leaving for winter break.” they wave their hands around, “all gone, poof.” _

The room is, unsurprisingly, empty when she arrives. Most teachers would have classes throughout the morning, something she doesn’t have to suffer through here as an internee with less than four classes everyday. As grateful as she was for the free time, it still led to painfully lethargic days. She open the window and settles into an armchair close to it.

Little over an hour later, she finds herself sitting with her legs folded beneath her as she leans against the arm of the chair, not as much of a healthy pose as a momentarily comfortable one, a quarter of her scarf done. She stretches out, throwing her legs over the other arm in the process, and instantly regrets her previous pose as her back twinges. As she turns her head to face the doorway, she sees Erwin smiling.

_ “Petra is so, so disappointed.” _

Nanaba is halfway through flipping him off when somebody gasps behind his now hazy apparition.

“Ms.Nanaba! Are you alright?” She rushes back to a respectable sitting position, and then blinks once before actually recognizing Nifa.

“Uh, yes. I’m fine.”

“Oh! That's great! I was just worried because you were lying in such an odd position.” She smiles shyly   before sitting down on the loveseat and settles and settles a healthy stack of papers next to her. 

“Marking assignments again?” Nanaba asks, and snorts at the miserable face Nifa makes at the question. They have talked a bit before, largely in the common room, where Nifa often marks assignments, especially when she’s running a little late. She teaches a much older class than Nanaba, and the assignments are usually just as frustrating.

“Half of them didn’t even follow the instructions.” Nifa sighs before shaking her head,”Are you making a sweater, Miss Nanaba?”

Nanaba looks down at her project before laughing lightly, “God, no. It’s just a scarf. I only ever made a sweater once, and my sister still loathes that birthday gift.” Nifa’s face cracks into a smile. “Ill fitting or bad material?” 

Nanaba hums, a mischievous smile overcoming her features in spite of herself as she remembers Petra’s exasperation. “Both.”

Nifa starts to giggle, “So you’ll never make one again?”

“Depends.” They both share friendly smiles before continuing with their own work. The friendly interaction makes Nanaba remember just how much she was missing her home, and in specific, her sister. She hadn’t really heard from her ever since she had started working at the school, but the letter from her parents had mentioned that Petra was fine, and was probably going to be writing to her soon. 

They had almost never been on the same page of things, aside from agreeing that Erwin was some sort of mage and that clothes were stupidly expensive. Petra was heavily opinionated like her too, but she didn’t let that stop her from mingling with generally unlikeable people or the elite, who, to Nanaba at least, overlapped greatly. Petra was good at taking opportunity by the hand when it showed, and was good at fitting in, even if it meant that she was going to rave for hours and hours later about the ladies she had met, either in admiration or in disgust. 

She snorts as she recalls Petra angrily dragging her out of a party because she’d called Ms. Moffat a prude, only to say _ “You don’t tell people, especially those you don't know  personally, what they are to there faces, Nan! It's unseeming for a lady!" _

Nifa leave an hour and a half later to finish off some other pending work, and Nanaba is reading a book at the time, her scarf done, save for its border, and stowed away in her basket. She flips to the next page after bidding Nifa goodbye and goodluck with her checking. 

It doesn’t take long for her to get tired of the book, and for her to remember that she does, in fact, have to edit the next chapter of her story for next week's publishing. She sighs as she straightens up, wanting to but being unable to feel regret at the pose she’d sat in her seat for the pain in her back.

She's about to leave the room before she realizes that she hasn’t closed the window, as she often does when there aren’t other people in the room, and turns around to go close it.

As she leans down to close the latch of the window, her eyes catch sight of the scene through the open window of the opposing window, and her lips crack into a smile.

It’s Mike, except he’s on all fours as he ‘leans’ down to explain something to a tiny blonde, Christa, Nanaba guesses from her shrill voice saying “luce!!”, while Ymir climbs up on his back and pulls at his jacket.

She can't see that clearly, but she can already imagine his exasperated expression at that. 

Apparently, whatever they had been doing before that had come to a clear stop, as Mike clearly stops the girls to put his books up on the coffee table, and then it’s just playtime. Which largely consists of playing house of some sort.

Nanaba ends up sitting back in her chair, from where she can see the other room, and pretends to go back to her book, even if her eyes are set on the chaos going on in the next building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!! (I totally did not vanish! ahaha)  
> Thank you for throwing kudos and comments at my insufferable self, you're all too good.( ; w; )  
> As with this chapter, the mikenana is finally, (FINALLY), making a comeback as the story shifts a little more into events and out of Nana's mind lol.  
> (PS: Nanaba is totally not a stalker. nope.)


End file.
